Vodafone has announced it will sell Apple's iPhone in Australia later this year.

The carrier would not say whether the agreement signed between it and Apple was exclusive, however, it is understood Telstra and Optus will also offer the device.

Optus and Apple declined to comment. Comment is being sought from Telstra.

A concrete date for the local iPhone launch has yet to be announced, however, it is likely to coincide with the opening of the official Apple store in the Sydney CBD around June.

The model to be launched in Australia is likely to be a second-generation version that supports faster 3G networks, because local carriers are in the midst of migrating their customers over to 3G.

In the US the iPhone currently retails for $US400 for the 8GB version and $US500 for the 16GB version.

In addition to Australia, Vodafone will sell the iPhone in the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey.

"Vodafone Australia is enormously pleased to be included in the agreement to sell the iPhone to our customers later this year," Vodafone chief executive Russell Hewitt said.

"The iPhone has already proved to be extremely popular with customers in other parts of the world and Vodafone is confident that today's announcement will be well received by all Australians who are keen to get their hands on their own iPhone."